Good Vibrations For the Future of Computing

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology have demonstrated a new technology based on mechanical vibrations to perform logic operations.

Credit: KAUST

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia say they have demonstrated a new technology based on mechanical vibrations to perform logic operations.

The team notes the technique uses microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which have been studied in the past for logic operations, based on frequency mixing, which holds great potential for cascading.

"Electromechanical systems offer a major advantage over existing technology in that they are leakage-free; that is, unlike electrical transistors, they only consume power when switched," says KAUST's Saad Ilyas.

KAUST's Nizar Jaber notes, "We use an electrical signal as an input, which causes a clamped polymer microbeam to vibrate at a certain resonance frequency."

Jaber says this could then be cascaded into the input of another MEMS logic gate.

The researchers demonstrated various logic operations at a single operating frequency, which they say marks an important step toward cascading as the next breakthrough in MEMS resonator-based computing.